The Food & Health Bureau (FHB) today said no COVID-19 positive case was found among those who failed to receive SMS messages containing their negative test results, and there was no delay in treatment due to SMS messages not being sent out.

The bureau made a clarification again in response to media enquiries and reports on the testing arrangements for COVID-19 case numbers 7916 and 8249.

It explained that due to the relatively large number of tests conducted by the Government with negative results, the practice which has been adopted is that people who tested negative will not be notified separately.

Nonetheless, the Government understands that members of the public want to be notified of the results after taking the test. Therefore, the FHB, the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority (HA), in response to public demand, have gradually improved their computer systems since the end of November to notify people who have tested negative via SMS messages.

Due to technical problems during the process of changing the computer system, some people who obtained specimen bottles through private doctors did not receive SMS messages containing their negative test results after being tested. The Government immediately took remedial measures and the problems had already been resolved.

The bureau stressed that the technical problems are not related to the outsourcing of the laboratory testing work.

It said the Government has issued over 250,000 SMS messages containing negative test results since the end of November when the computer system was being improved and that specimen bottles with standardised barcodes were distributed through private doctors, the HA's designated general out-patient clinics, post offices and MTR stations.

It is estimated that about 800 people, including case numbers 7916 and 8249, failed to receive SMS messages containing their negative test results, and there was no positive case among them.

Currently, people will receive SMS messages containing their negative test results if they receive free testing at community testing centres, or obtain specimen bottles through private doctors, the HA's designated general out-patient clinics, post offices and MTR stations and return the specimen samples for testing.

The bureau said it will continue to improve the system so that people receiving tests can be notified of their results via SMS messages within 48 hours as far as possible.

It also emphasised that the SMS notification arrangement is designed to inform members of the public of negative test results and give them peace of mind. All positive cases are notified and followed up in accordance with the Centre for Health Protection's existing mechanism for separate handling as soon as possible.

The handling of such positive cases will not be affected by the SMS notification system and the time of sending out messages, it added.